The eagerly anticipated annual office Christmas party proved to be a total waste of time, mainly because of the lack of so many colleagues that have been let go in the past year. There simply weren't very many people for me to chat with.





With Sinterklaas safely out of the way, I sat down, wrote out and sent my Christmas cards. I also succombed to the lure of a Christmas tree.





That's it, next to the mother-in-law's tongue. I can't have a normal size tree as the cats have been known to use it as a climbing rack in years past, and no tree has ever survived such treatment. Well, not here, anyway.

Yesterday, we celebrated Romeo's 6th birthday with veggieburgers and chocolate cake. My sister and her family are moving house in a week or two, and so we sat among the boxes and talked of new carpets and schools for the children.